Crash Landing On You

Crash Landing of Love, Emergency Lands of Love, Emergency Love Landing, Love Crashes, Love’s Emergency Landing, Sarangui Bulsichak, The Crash of Love

Completed 16 episodes 2019

Genre : Comedy · Drama · Military · Political · Romance
Broadcast : December 14, 2019
Diffuser : TvN, Netflix
Director : Lee Jeong-hyo
Screenwriter : Park Ji-eun
Casting : Hyun Bin, Son Ye-jin, Seo Ji-hye, Kim Jung-hyun, Yang Kyung-won, Lee Shin-young, Yoo Soo-bin, Tang Jun-sang, Oh Man-seok, Kim Young-min, Jeon Gook-hwan, Jung Ae-ri, Nam Kyung-eup, Bang Eun-jin, Choi Dae-hoon, Hwang Woo-seul-hye, Park Hyung-soo, Yoon Ji-min, Jang Hye-jin, Park Myung-hoon, Go Kyu-pil, Im Chul-soo, Kim Jung-nan, Kim Sun-young, Cha Chung-hwa, Jang So-yeon, Hong Woo-jin, Ha Seok-jin, Jung Kyung-ho, Park Sung-woong, Kim Soo-hyun

The Story

Yoon Se-ri (Son Ye-jin) is a wealthy South Korean heiress and business executive who, while paragliding, is swept away by a violent tornado. She accidentally finds herself on the other side of the border, in North Korea, where she meets Ri Jeong-hyeok (Hyun Bin), a North Korean army officer from an influential family. Aware of the danger her presence poses, Jeong-hyeok decides to hide her and secretly arranges for her return to South Korea.

With the help of his soldiers Pyo Chi-su (Yang Kyung-won), Kim Ju-muk (Yoo Soo-bin), Park Kwang-beom (Lee Shin-young), and Geum Eun-dong (Tang Jun-sang), he tries to protect Se-ri while evading the authorities and the formidable Jo Cheol-kang (Oh Man-seok). As they are forced to live together, Se-ri and Jeong-hyeok fall in love despite the border and political tensions that make their relationship nearly impossible.

At the same time, Seo Dan (Seo Ji-hye), Jeong-hyeok’s fiancée, crosses paths with Gu Seung-jun (Kim Jung-hyun), a South Korean businessman who has taken refuge in the North, sparking a second love story. Between romance, humor, suspense, and separation, Crash Landing on You tells two romantic stories that grapple with borders, family, and the choices imposed by their two countries.

Impact and Success

Crash Landing on You has become one of the most iconic K-dramas of the international Korean wave. The series has far surpassed its television success in Korea thanks to its global streaming on Netflix, helping to make Korean dramas even more popular with an international audience. The duo Hyun Bin / Son Ye-jin has become one of the most famous couples in the genre, while the supporting characters—notably the soldiers of the 5th Company and the women of the North Korean village—played a major role in the drama’s popularity.

The series has also been praised for its relatively nuanced portrayal of daily life in North Korea and for the power of the romance between two characters separated by the inter-Korean border. Its cultural impact continued for several years after it aired: the Swiss filming locations became major tourist destinations for fans. In Iseltwald, the influx of visitors has become so great that, as of 2023, there is now an admission fee to access the famous dock featured in the series.

Announcements

Crash Landing on You thus remains a a major work in modern Korean romance literature and one of the dramas that contributed most to the international expansion of K-dramas at the turn of the 2020s.